Will my listening experience improve? Buying a new receiver.

#1

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9/17/09 at 12:59pm

TheSamurai
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Being that you can't "rent" a receiver, and I want to know before I make this purchase -- and with many people here who are extremely knowledgeable, I thought I'd ask: will my listening experience be improved by a large amount?

I'm thinking of purchasing a Pioneer VSX-819H-K that's $299.99 at Best Buy or possibly invest into something a little more expensive/different brand (if someone can suggest something reasonably priced).

I currently have a Pioneer VSX-9500s, and thought maybe it'd be time to switch to a newer receiver that can accept the newer formats for sound -- but unsure if it's a big leap or not in listening experience.

And I'm not sure if there would be a great improvement from the current one I have to this new receiver. The one I have now is a great receiver, but obviously doesn't accept the newer formats -- however has high ratings in sound quality from research I've dug up on the internet.

Thanks!

#2

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9/17/09 at 2:47pm

David Willow
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The biggest influence on sound quality is your speakers. Your room (including speaker placement) is second followed by the receiver.

What speakers do you currently use?

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#3

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9/17/09 at 5:37pm

TheSamurai
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I have my TV inside of a China cabinet, so I was limited to my two front speakers

1 Polk center speaker
2 Bose bookshelf speakers (front)
2 Sansui speakers (rear)
Klipsch SW-350 subwoofer

#4

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9/17/09 at 6:29pm

David Willow
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Before you invest in a new receiver, I suggest you replace the Bose with Polks to match your center. Removing the Bose and matching the center will give you better results than replacing the receiver.

Second suggestion, if you have the speaker in an enclosed area, they won't sound as good unless they are designed to be enclosed.

Or, for about $500ish you can get 5 new speakers. Here's a link to a set of SVS speakers. They are a little bigger than the Bose but not too much. Pair something similar to these with your existing subwoofer and I think you will be much happier. http://www.svsound.com/products-spks-sbs01.cfm

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#5

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9/17/09 at 6:47pm

TheSamurai
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The front-bookshelf (are they bookshelf)? I'm not sure, but I really like them because they're kind of hefty & big and sound great. However, the speakers I bought (except the center speaker) are about 20 years old.

What would you suggest for a bookshelf?

What do you mean "enclosed", if you mean my living room is enclosed. Then yes.

What receiver would you suggest I buy? I'd like to see how the new sound formats (over pro logic) sound.

#6

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9/18/09 at 5:50am

David Willow
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I see. When I hear Bose, I automatically think those horrible small speakers they sell today. I keep forgetting they used to sell real speakers in the 70's.

It would be very difficult for you to match a center with the Bose since they are so old. Even if you got them sounding really great, movies would still suffer with the odd center. I would still suggest replacing them instead of buying a new reciever.

By enclosed I mean inside a cabinet. The room being 'enclosed' is actually a good thing (sound wise).

If you are intent on getting a new receiver, for under $500 check out Denon and Onkyo. Get the highest model you can get for the money (Onkyo 607 maybe, not sure with Denon).

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Dolby and DTS Plaques (downloads)

#7

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9/18/09 at 6:02am

Scott Merryfield
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I agree with the others that you should look to upgrade your speakers before investing any money in a new receiver. Also, getting your front speakers out of the china cabinet is also an excellent suggestion.

While those Bose bookshelf speakers were decent in their day (I owned some back in the 1980's, too), you will not find a decent matching center speaker, which is critical for good quality home theater sound. The center speaker is the most important one in a HT setup, IMO. Bose center speakers are absolute garbage. For $200 you get something that sounds like a cheap $10 speaker wrapped in a burlap sack.

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#8

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9/18/09 at 8:47am

Philip Hamm
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Did anyone replying take the time to look up the VSX-9500 which the OP is using?

Quote:

Originally Posted by David Willow

The biggest influence on sound quality is your speakers. Your room (including speaker placement) is second followed by the receiver.

What speakers do you currently use?

All things being equal I would agree. In this case, all things are not equal.

TheSamurai, your fine Pioneer reciever uses Dolby Pro Logic for surround sound. This is a very old matrixed surround mode. This means it derives surround and center information from a stereo audio signal. In the late 90s, some new surround formats started being introduced which included discrete audio streams for all channels of sound. The most common of these is "dolby digital", which is used as the standard for HDTV and DVD.

You don't mention what your sources are, I assume DVD and some kind of cable or sattelite for "broadcast" viewing.

In your case, for DVD at least, using your existing speakers, you will experience a dramatic and immediate upgrade in quality with the VSX-819H-K you are considering. If your cable box or sattelite box has a little "Dolby Digital" logo on the front and a digital output on the back you will potentially get a big improvement with broadcast TV sound also, depending on your cable or sattelite system. If you are using an antenna and receiving broadcasts over the air you may need to either plug your TV or HDTV box into the receiver using a digital cable or upgrade the HDTV tuner before experiencing the very nice 5.1 channel dolby digital commonly found in over-the-air broadcast.

You will need new cables to connect the components - you will need to use either "optical", "Coaxial", or "HDMI" style cables. Absolutely do NOT buy these at Best Buy. Go to www.monoprice.com or www.cablesforless.com to order the cables, or stop by your local Wal*Mart or Target or something like that - they may have the cables you need. What digital cables you use will depend on what kind of outputs your source components have and what kind of inputs the new reciever has.

Thinking about how many reliable years of service you got from the VSX-9500s, I completely understand why you are looking at Pioneer again. I would do the same thing.

Philip Hamm
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#9

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9/18/09 at 10:18am

ShanonS
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I would not buy your receiver from Best Buy either. I buy a lot of movies, music and games from them, and occasionally bigger items, but not much audio/video equipment. For $322 right now on Amazon, you can get the Onkyo TX-SR507 which has Audyssey EQ and auto room set up, which would go a ways towards making your current speakers sound better together, and also handles the latest audio formats, even up to HD. Heck, for $600 you can get the receiver and a full Klipsch surround setup. You may even be able to get it at your price if you call a couple of the other Onkyo authorized dealers or if you look around a little more.

Just one more suggestion...

#10

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9/21/09 at 12:18pm

TheSamurai
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Hey thanks for the information there Philip! That was really useful and helpful, yeah, I think I'm going to go purchase this bad-boy this week or maybe another receiver this week.

I have Comcast with an HDTV Receiver (Comcast RNG110), and HDTV channels.

I was reading that the auto-surround isn't good or something? This is a concern for me, because since I'll be using my Comcast HDTV Receiver most and flipping through channels. A lot of channels are in stereo (will it change to stereo; I want it to), and all the different dolby digital formats in 5.1 for the HDTV channels.

I want auto-detection and for it to switch.

Do you think it would be worth it to switch to getting the Klipsch Quintet 5CH Theater System speakers? Would I benefit much?

Edited by TheSamurai - 9/21/09 at 12:28pm

#11

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9/22/09 at 9:20am

Philip Hamm
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Quote:

Originally Posted by TheSamurai

Hey thanks for the information there Philip! That was really useful and helpful, yeah, I think I'm going to go purchase this bad-boy this week or maybe another receiver this week.

I have Comcast with an HDTV Receiver (Comcast RNG110), and HDTV channels.

I was reading that the auto-surround isn't good or something? This is a concern for me, because since I'll be using my Comcast HDTV Receiver most and flipping through channels. A lot of channels are in stereo (will it change to stereo; I want it to), and all the different dolby digital formats in 5.1 for the HDTV channels.

I want auto-detection and for it to switch.

Do you think it would be worth it to switch to getting the Klipsch Quintet 5CH Theater System speakers? Would I benefit much?

I would think that any reciever would instantly switch between matrixed surround (Dolby ProLogic) and discrete surround as you switch channels. My ancient Pioneer VSX-D606S and VSX-D509S both do this effortlessly with a source where the audio channels change from 5.1 to stereo (prologic). All I had to do was select dolby for a stereo source. I don't know about auto detection of sources but any receiver should auto detect the surround mode.

The suggested Klipsh speakers will sound a lot better than what you have, but what you have will sound a lot better with a new reciever. Your sub is definitely worth keeping!

Philip Hamm
Moderator Emeritus

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